Rockin the Rockies

Friday, March 13, 2015

After not having much time to go crystal hunting between work and bad weather I planned to go rock hounding with my prospector friend Bob to see what we could find. We had planned to go 10 days prior, so despite a rather formidable weather forecast we decided to check out the terrain at Lake George.

I told Bob I may just stay in the truck and drink coffee and eat a bearclaw as the the forecast was for a high temperature of 39F with a 50% of rain or snow... ugh. About the time we got to Lake George, CO the snow began falling. We tried to get back towards our Club's claim, but after several runs up the hill and some rather unnerving slides back down we gave up and parked the vehicle.

Roads were slick and icy

I had told Bob a slope on the claim looked fairly untouched and was covered in fairly good quartz sign, so we gave it try. Bob and I both followed the quartz shards up the hill to a somewhat exposed pegmatite. Where I dug, the pegmatite was shallow and unproductive; however, Bob's dig was quite a different story and he soon started pulling out smoky quartz crystals.

Maybe some termination issues but a nice sized crystal

Unfortunately many of the crystals were broken, but Bob still got a few keepers. After finishing the majority of the dig Bob started wrapping his crystals while I crawled in his excavation as a pinch hitter and found a small seam of clay for myself and got a few crystals of my own.

Gemmy!

While the crystals I found were small, they all had good luster and were gemmy. When finished we filled in the dig and threw a few rocks over the site, so that it blended in fairly well with the surroundings. I believe there is more to be found along that particular pegmatite. In couple of weeks weather permitting we will give it another try, but 34F, windy with snow is not my kind of rock hounding weather.

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Crystals piling up by the dozens, excavation in background Thinking the cold weather and frozen ground were here to stay I packed up m...

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I wish to thank those who have viewed my blog and encouraged me to continue. Long overdue recognition to my 7th grade science teacher and principal Theodore De Jong who got me interested in minerals and science.

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About Me

I grew up outside Chicago in the suburb of Western Springs. I attended Timothy Christian School and then went on to college at Calvin College (BS) and the University of Michigan (MS) I entered the US Air Force and after several assignments retired in Colorado Springs. Along the way I got an MBA at Western New England University.